Cancer has taken another great creative talent (and great human being) from us in the comic book and animation community. Nicola Cuti — known to his many friends as "Nick" — had been battling the disease for some time and the battle ended this morning. A person unknown to me posted on Nick's Facebook page, a much better summary of his career than I could assemble…
Cuti was born October 29, 1944. He served in the United States Air Force for four years. It was during this time that his first works were published.
An artist and comic and science-fiction writer and editor, he is best known as a co-creator of Moonchild the Starbabe and the superhero E-Man, a series he worked on with his dear friend, Joe Staton. Other creations of his included Captain Cosmos, Brightstar and Starflake the Cosmic Sprite. During his career, he worked alongside legends such as Wally Wood, Stan Lee, and Bill Black, founder of AC Comics. His works were featured in Charlton Comics, Warren Publishing, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics. He contributed to famous franchises such as Vampirella, Popeye and Creepy Magazine.
In addition to his work in the comic industry, Cuti also worked in many productions for Disney, Universal Studios, and Sony Pictures as an animation background designer. Some of the shows he worked on included Gargoyles, 101 Dalmatians and The Critic.
I knew Nick as the pleasantest of people — funny, friendly, disliked by no one. His writing was fresh and filled with passion. If the E-Man comic is not currently in print in some collection, it should be. It read like no super-hero comic before or after and walked that difficult bridge between humor and serious. And I just plain liked the guy. So sorry we lost him.